Castledoor - Shouting at Mountains

Artist: Castledoor
Album: Shouting at Mountains
Released: April 21, 2009
Label: Castledoor
Stars: 4.5
Skippable Tracks: 0
Must-listen/purchase Track: couldn’t decide on one

As promised, I’m doing the review on the new Castledoor album Shouting at Mountains. The only reason why I didn’t give it the full five stars was because they decided to use a lot more backing vocals on the album, which can be slightly annoying at times. I hate to say it but some songs are almost ruined by them (ex. the song Free).

On previous albums the backing vocals can barely be heard, so it took me by surprise when I head them. There is nothing wrong with using them, but when the vocals are basically just repeating what the singer just said, or just saying “bop bop” it makes it sound a bit cheesy. If the backing vocals were used only to create harmony, the album would have turned out quite a bit better. The singer is married to one of the vocalists, so maybe he had no choice. I mean, how do you tell your wife that she is ruining your songs? I don’t think you could, or should. That just goes to show you that the singer is a nice guy.

Anyways, all of the songs are pretty much just guitars, synth, and drums. Nothing really all that complicated, but they manage to put it together in an original way. Most of the songs are four-star-tacks, and the rest are about a three. I feel like there is a week point from tack six to eight, but they are still decent songs.

Castledoor has posted a lot of their music on PureVolume and has included some free tacks. As well, the band posted a link to one of their new songs on Twitter and can be downloaded here. You can also purchase all their music on iTunes.

Thanks again to Michael Elves for getting this CD for the station.

Here's the only official video I could find. It's not a song from Shouting at Mountains, but a single released last year from their 'til we sink EP.

Attack in Black - Years (by One Thousand Fingertips)

Album: Years (by One Thousand Fingertips)
Released: March 10, 2009
Label: Dine Alone Records
Stars: 4.5
Skippable Tracks: 0


Years is Attack in Black's third studio album, and they have gotten a whole lot folkier from what I remember. All I had heard from them were a couple of pop-punk songs that really didn't do much for me. I decided to check out the album because of rumors of Years being quite a nice listen from start to finish. The album DID flow very nicely from start to finish, leaving you little time for you to doze off.
I have since checked out their previous album The Curve of the Earth which has quite a few great songs as well. Obviously, you can check it out if you decide you like this one. Another fact would be that both the guitarist (Spencer Burton) and singer (Daniel Romano) have contributed to the City and Color (Dallas Green) recordings.

The album opens with a folky song, and is followed by a song that mixes acoustic and electric guitars. This is accompanied by the distorted voice of D. Romano and has a bit of an older sound to it. Third song is pretty standard, but has quite a catchy chorus...so I gave it a passing grade. The same can be said for the following couple of songs. The next notable songs are Leather Jacket, which is sadly only two and a half minutes long, as well as Seeds which adds a little of guitar distortion to the mix right when you would have dozed. There are about ten more tracks after that, but I really don't wanna describe every single tune, but give you a brief idea.

This is a very nicely put together album, and has some pretty decent tracks available. My only complaint would be that my favorites happen to only be two and a half minutes or shorter. Overall, its a great listen from start to finish. I'd recommend a start-to-finish kind of listen for this album. Stand alone tracks don't seem to have the same charm.

Check their MySpace

Immaculate Machine

Album: High On Jackson Hill
Released: April 28, 2009
Label: Mint Records
Stars: 4.5
Skippable Tracks: 1

The funny thing about this skippable track is that it's song number ONE. Not really a good choice for a first track in my opinion, but maybe someone really wanted it on the album, and another person decided to put it on as the first track just to get it out of the way. I feel like the rest of the album is a LOT better than that this first track.

After that first little bump, you will not have to touch any buttons for the rest of the album; except maybe to crank it up. I especially enjoyed the folk track You Destroyer, a nice little break early in the album. I've must have listened to that song about ten times in a row. The beautiful voice, and raw recording made me fall absolutely in love with it right from the beginning. The only problem with that track was that it left me wanting more, and a whole lot more of that type of sound. Sadly, that sound never comes back. We do hear a couple more ballads later on in the record such as I know its not easy, And It Was, and Blurry Days which are quite great in their own wright.

The rest of the album rocks-out quite a bit more with Sound the Alarm, Primary Colors, all incredibly catchy rockin' tracks. This is one of my recent favorites to pop in to the disc layer! Check it out!




High on Jackson Hill